Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – So That – James 5:16 – So That You May Be Healed- Growing As Disciples
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16 (NIV)
Powerful And Effective
Do you want to be able to pray prayers that are powerful and effective? Do you want to pray prayers that I will hear and answer? Do you want to pray prayers that will bring healing to others and yourself? Yes of course, I want to pray powerful and effective prayers. I really do want to pray prayers that you will hear and answer. I want to pray healing for others and for myself. How can I pray these kinds of prayers? That is a very good question.
One thing is necessary if you want to pray prayers that are powerful and effective. One thing is required if you want to pray prayers that I will hear and answer. What one thing is necessary? You must hear from me. I will give you the prayers that I want you to pray. You must pray prayers that are according to my will. You must pray prayers that are according to my purposes and my plans.
How will I ever be able to hear from you? How will I be able to know if you have given me a prayer to pray? What will hinder you from hearing from me? Sin will hinder me from hearing from you. If I am living in sin I will have a very difficult time hearing from you. That’s right. I will also have a very hard time hearing from you if I have not confessed my sins to you. Why is that? When I know that I am either living in sin or not confessing my sins I am likely to be distant from you. Instead of drawing near to you I am more likely to want to hide from you. You’re right again. So, if you want to hear from me what will you do? I will both leave sin behind and confess my sins to you. You will draw near to me to confess your sins to me? Yes, I will. You will draw near to me as you leave sin behind? Yes, I will. Then you will hear from me. There is more that you want to tell me, isn’t there? Yes, I have one more question for you.
What will help you to hear from me? We just talked about what would hinder me from hearing from you. Yes, we did. This is other half of the answer to your questions. What were my questions? How will you ever be able to hear from me? How will you be able to know if I have given you a prayer to pray? I don’t know the answer to your question. Oh, I’m sure that you do know the answer. I don’t think so. What would you do if you desperately wanted to hear from me? I would seek you with all my heart. I wouldn’t give up. I wouldn’t let up. I would be urgent. I would be unrelenting. I would be insistent and persistent. You know what that sounds like to me? I’m not sure. It sounds like the answer to my question. Really? Yes, really. Seek me with all your heart. Don’t give up. Don’t let up. Be urgent and unrelenting. Be insistent and persistent and you will certainly hear from me. You will know that I have given you prayers to pray. You will know that you are praying powerful prayers that I will hear and answer. Then that is exactly what I will do. That will be very good.
Lord, I will not try to cover up or hide from my sins. I will confess all my sins to you and to any one I have sinned against. I don’t want anything to get in the way and hinder my prayers. I want to be able to pray powerful prayers that you will hear and answer. Amen
For today’s complete 4 page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide click here:
So That – James 5-16 – You May Be Healed – 4 Page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide
Please consider sharing these devotionals with others through the social media you use.
Individual users may save the Discipleship Devotional Study Guide to their desktop for private use. All the blanks in the study guides are fields that allow typed responses. To use the fields on the study guide you may need to open the guide with a free version of adobe reader.
By Jon Ulrich © All rights reserved Copying not permitted www.GrowingAsDisciples.com
